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I am a thirty one year old Montana gal. I am fiercely independent and enjoy quiet time just as much as I love to spend time with my friends and family!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Stressors in Early Childhood

Well, Natural Disaster is certainly a hot topic for much of our world these days!  With the current earthquake/tsunami in Japan to regions of North America, unusually, hit by harsh winters; the worlds weather and natural disasters certainly add stress to life's already many demands.

This discussion and increased media attention for all of these natural disasters has gotten me thinking of when I was about seven years old...

**As a side note in no way do I think that my situation is any where near, or compares even closely to the catastrophic events in current happenings around the world, but it is what I have to reference:)  **

Anyway, when I was young we had a very stormy summer.  I stayed home with my sister in the summers (we lived in a very small town).  Because of the storms, my father would take me out to the back yard and taught me how to 'read' the clouds.  He showed me which direction they would travel, what different colors meant, what different clouds meant, what funnel clouds looked like and when we would need to run for cover.
One night when my whole family was home, we did have quite a storm!  I vividly remember the very large pine tree in front of our living room picture window swaying almost to its side.  I also remember the extreme blackness, not just 'night time' dark but absolute blackness outside.  There also seemed to be a significant charge in the air - as if you could feel the tension of nature building up.  At the high point of the storm I remember my father looking out the front window, watching up at the sky...without turning to look at us, he told us to get the pillows and blankets from our beds and to head to the basement a tornado was coming!


Now, I knew what tornadoes were and I knew they were dangerous and the amount of damage that they could cause (as if the storm itself wasn't doing a good enough job on its own) but I was still scared.  However, I remember not being scared because of the prospect of the storm but because I could feel my parents fear and tension - I will never forget that look on my father's face.

As it turns, out a very small tornado did touch down about a mile from our home and ripped up a few power lines in its path - small by comparison to many!  We coped with this dark, stormy night by being a family.  I was so thankful that my parents were there to protect me!  After the storm, of course, my sister and I were terrified but my parents talked us through it.  One way my parents always helped us was by telling us the truth, they never sugar - coated things so we knew what to expect and were never surprised.  We also had the benefit of having my father teach us about storms.  Having knowledge of what to watch for in the clouds allowed us to feel prepared on our own, to always be watchful and mindful and to never be taken by surprise by the black clouds on the horizon.


The recent earthquake in Japan is certainly fresh in all of our minds.  It made me wonder what relief efforts are done to help young children cope with such disasters that, literally, turn their whole world upside down.  One great effort is "Save the Children."  In the earthquake/tsunami ravaged areas that were the most greatly impacted, there have been designated children's centers set up with in the shelter.  These specially designated areas have crafts, activities, and specially trained staff to help work through the fears they may be having.

http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6621121/k.3D08/Japan_Earthquake_Tsunami_Relief.htm

It is good to know that there are organizations out there that solely focus on the efforts of young children.  This of course will aid parents and the family as a whole!!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Mental Health in Families

 I choose to discuss mental health in families as a health topic, particularly domestic violence.
This particular topic is important to me because I have worked with several families who are in, getting out of or have survived domestic violence situations.  One impactful story for me was one day I was observing two young boys working at a paint easel.  There was a bit of tension between them, they were not speaking, fighting, or arguing but you could "feel" tension between them.  Eventually, the younger of the two (just as plain as possible, without in fore-thought) said; "Do you have a dad?"  The older of the two replied with as imple "yes".  They sat in silence a few more moments and then the younger of the two again initiated; "Me too, but my dad is in Jail."  The older child replied, "Yeah mine too, cause he hurts my mom."

At that point the conversation between them ended and so did the un-seen tension.  It was as if a sense of belonging, understanding and commorardorie had been developed instantly between them because of an empathy of 'knowing'.

Domestic violence is a problem!  And, even in todays day and age, we still seem to battle families sense of shame, "good ol' boy syndrome's", battles of the sexes, and "keeping it in the family" type syndromes.  However, domestic violence impacts us all and as the story shows above, teachers need to be aware of what is going on in a families situations.  I did not know that the one child's father had recently gone to jail, however I did know that this young boy, was withdrawn and not sleeping or eating well.  So, of course, when I heard this I understood more and could now channel my energies to direct his behavior and better reach out to him throughout the day.

I researched domestic violence and again came across Japan.  I realized that they to have the similar "good ol' boys" syndrome that can come in to play.  However, their domestic violence problems seem to be even more prevelant and even more hidden away.  In fact, they have only recently enacted their first domestic violence law in 2001!  Although, it has been ammended several times, domestic violence continues to be a problem and one that most feel is still quite understated in their region.

Please reference an empowering article about those taking a chance to speak out in Japan; "Speaking out about domestic violence" by David McNeill and Chie Matsumoto

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20091107fl.html

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Birthing Experiences

Well, this was a tough one for me....Besides whatching videos during my educational career I have not expreinces an actual child birthing.  I myself, don't have any children and I am the oldest between my sister and I and she does not have any children either.  Additionally, none of my close friends have children either - this may speak a bit to the growing trend of generations of young women who don't want childre (I guess we can discuss that issue later).

However, I did recently visit a young couple of a mutual friend of ours who had just had their baby hours before.  As a bit of an "observer" it was interesting to me to whatch the scenes unfold in this hospital room with this family.  I was wonderfully shocked about a few things.  First, was the size of the room!  It was huge, certainly enough to accomodate this small families entire extended family.  They had their own private bathroom, the bed for the mother of course, a large recliner-rocking chair and a large bench seat that doubled as a bed for the father so that he could also stay in the room with them.  Then there was a "tray" of sorts that held all of the newborn's supplies (as requested by the family) and this is where the babies "crib" was when needed.  A second thing that I found interesting was the amount of people that were in and out of the room - no questions asked.  I guess I had an assumption that if you were visiting a nursery you had to check in to ensure that babies were not getting sick or needlesly exposed to anything - but that was certainly not the case.  Family, friends, nurses, doctors were all in and out!  The baby was also always in the room and stayed and recieved all care in the room with the parents.

All in all it was a wonderful experience and a great observation opportunity for me.  I love the fact that the whole family is invited in, encouraged to stay and are all kept together as a unit.

In comparison I felt that I would like to look further into Japan's birthing culture.  I once had an instructor from Japan and she had spoken to us a bit about the differences of toilet learning between Japan and the United States, so I was curious as to what the primary differences would be.  I actually found a few resources, which I will list below, one was a generic posting of a few of the primary differences and one is a "story" of sorts about an American couple giving birth to twins in Japan.  I few things that wer of interst to me were the differences in the way that fathers are treated, nursing and after care of women and children.  In Japan fathers do not usually take part in the birthing process at all, in fact many Japanese women go to their maternal mother's house for birthing - leaving their husbands for up to three months to care for the child.  That is a long three months that a child misses out on bonding with their father!  This is definately different in our culture and in comparison to my friends birth - the father was expected to stay in the delivery room with her for the extent of her stay.

Nursing is also interesting difference in Japan.  It seems that many hospitals there have a "policy" that babies be completely seperate from their mothers for three days.  Apparently the idea here is to allow the mother to rest and recover.  However, during this time, the baby is obviously fed formula and therefore breast feeding is not necessarily encouraged.  This is different from the friends of mine experience - a nurse came in to the room several times to offer help and suggestions for breast feeding.  Also, I do not think mothers in the United States would tolerate being completely seperate from their newborn babies for that length of time!

It is so interesting to see, read about and learn of different cultures in pre-natal and birthing procedures.  Their is a side to every story and reason behind everyone's practices.  What matters most is that any family is allowed to practice what is best for them, their family and their cultural beliefs!

Here are the links to the two resoruces that I gained information from.  The personal story is very interesting and contains a great personal perspective:

http://www.health.qld.gov.au/multicultural/health_workers/Japanese-preg-prof.pdf

http://www.globalcompassion.com/japan-birth.htm

Early Childhood Resources

  • http://nieer.org/
  • http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hsrc/
  • http://www.ccw.org/
  • http://www.cec.sped.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home
  • http://www.childrensdefense.org/
  • http://www.dec-sped.org/
  • http://www.erikson.edu/
  • http://www.fpg.unc.edu/main/about.cfm
  • http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~snapshots/snap33.pdf
  • http://www.hepg.org/hel/topic/85
  • http://www.highscope.org/
  • http://www.iwpr.org/index.cfm
  • http://www.naeyc.org/
  • http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/ChildAbuseStand.pdf
  • http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/dap
  • http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/DEC_NAEYC_ECSummary_A.pdf
  • http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/diversity.pdf
  • http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/pscape.pdf
  • http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/Readiness.pdf
  • http://www.nccanet.org/
  • http://www.ncrece.org/wordpress/
  • http://www.omep-usnc.org/
  • http://www.preknow.org/
  • http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf
  • http://www.voices.org/
  • http://www.wested.org/cs/we/print/docs/we/home.htm
  • http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/about.php
  • http://www.zerotothree.org/
  • http://www.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_pub_infanttodller